What Were Your Dream Guns?

When we were kids growing up we all had those guns that we just thought were cool, or loved the way they looked. Maybe we saw them in movies; maybe they were leaned in the back of Grandpaw’s closet. We found ourselves daydreaming, and sometimes still do. Join us as we discuss some of our dream guns, past and present.

Jason

When I was a kid I always thought the M1911 Colt pistol was about the coolest looking handgun ever made. There was just something about those guns back in all the WWII & Vietnam War movies that always drew me in and made me drool. I still don’t have one, but I get to shoot vicariously through my brother and uncle and both of their guns (that you might haveseen us talking about in an episode of All For Gun TV).

I always liked the six-guns the cowboys slang as well, but when it came down to my favorite cowboy gun it always went back to the double barreled coach-gun. Something about dropping both barrels on a villain and blowing them 10 feet through the air and through the saloon doors always excited me. I’ve considered getting the rabbit-eared Norinco 12 gauge for fun, but have never ponied up and bought it either. I did get to hunt some birds with a Springfield double barrel this past opening day, but not too successfully. Out of 50 shells I put through those beautiful barrels I hit one dove. The gun owner who let me borrow it said he couldn’t hit anything with it either, so I only felt slightly embarrassed.

Springfield on Loan for dove.

I don’t know if I currently have a “dream gun” or not, but I have a couple that I am in the market for. Something I can hunt deer with in the .30-06 variety most likely, and something I can conceal carry better than my Ruger P95, possibly something of the .357/.38 variety.

Jeremy

It’s difficult to narrow down my current list of “dream guns.” If I think back to childhood and my early influences regarding which guns were cool, I had only a few points of reference at the time: my Dad’s guns, and the A-Team, mostly. George Peppard gripping a Colt .45 1911 in his black gloved hand always seemed tough, and like Jason, I’ve always wanted one but haven’t ponied up to get a version that I like. That one endures. Some others from A-Team influence have fallen away, however. B.A. wielding the belt-fed M60 like Rambo no longer seems desirable to me. Since having the chance a few years ago to handle a real full-auto Uzi like Face sometimes used, that ten-pound Italian brick has lost its appeal as well.

A beautiful example of the 1873 Winchester Short Rifle.

As my tastes have matured and changed over the years, I still love western movies, and I love the guns from that era even more. I do have a Stoeger/Uberti replica of a 1873 Colt. I would like to have a real Colt, but will likely instead get a New Vaquero from Ruger, which has the slimmer frame of the Colt and still utilizes Ruger’s transfer-bar safety system. To accompany those six-guns, I would like a nice replica of the 1873 Winchester with color-cased frame and some good looking wood. Perhaps this version from Uberti with it’s curious-cool half-octagonal barrel would fit the bill.

My list of dream guns runs too long to list here. Many spaces on the list are filled with guns that I had in hand at one point or other through the years and either couldn’t afford, or more often, couldn’t make myself get off my wallet to buy something that I just wanted and didn’t really at the time need. Those would include things like the Smith & Wesson 629 Mountain Gun, a 4″ barrel, round butt, stainless steel .44mag revolver. I regret not buying that one. Some others that my wallet has refused to move for include a fancy Sharps 45-70, a Springfield Armory M1A Scout, a Remington Model 7 Mountain Rifle, a Thompson M1 WWII style replica from Auto-Ordnance, and …

Dave

It is difficult to choose what I consider my dream gun. That is akin to trying to pick your dream car: A Fifties model Corvette, a Jaguar XKE ragtop, or something else? But in thinking about it, I decided that there must be an enduring desire for it in order to be called a “dream” item. For vehicles, for me it has to be the old WWII style Jeep. That desire springs from my childhood and remains. For guns, my earliest desires were for a rifle like my granddad’s .22, and of course the cowboy pistols and lever guns seen in the Saturday morning “Westerns” at the local theatre (before television was widespread). But as we mature and our knowledge expands, our desires change.

My long enduring gun desires today include guns like the M1 Carbine. I own an M1 Carbine by Universal, a civilian version made during the 1970s. But I really want one of the real things, or at least a new one that meets the mil-specs of the real deal. That one likely goes back to the plethora of WWII movies that I watched as a kid, and to the fact that it’s just a very cool rifle.

I also have fond memories of the Browning Over/Under 20ga. shotgun that I used for one day back in the 1960s shooting clays. The weight, balance, and dimensions of that Belgium-made shotgun were perfect for me and I never missed with it – not even once.

And I really like the older Mountain Rifle style of bolt-action rifles, which were lightweight, compact, well balanced, and came with factory iron sights. When I first hefted one of these about 35-years ago, I knew I had found my kind of high-power rifle. I favored the Ruger 77 version over the Remington 7 version, but the years have dimmed my memory of why. Either would have been great choices. But sadly, I don’t seem to find a rifle made that way anymore. The same could be said of the old army Jeep. These were all rugged and simple, and did the job they were intended to do. There is beauty in that – beauty that should be appreciated. Newer is not necessarily better.

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